Looften

I'm a 19 year old male, 5'11'', 237.5 lb

While I'm hardly morbidly obese, I could benefit from shedding plenty of pounds. I have a large, football player's build and am relatively well proportioned for a fat guy. If you saw me it'd be obivous that I was overweight, but not somebody you'd want to start a fight with.

I spend a lot of time sitting, whether it's in a college class, my job, or gaming on my computer during my free time; I do't get much exercise. Almost makes me wish my job was to haul boxes or smash rocks for hours.

Anyhow, I want to lose quite a bit of weight, and maybe build up some more muscle as a side benefit, although I'll probably save that for after I get in shape.

During my lunch break at work I walk for 30 minutes, can't run without sweating out of my cloths.

When I arrive home I have been doing ~15-20 minutes of continuous jogging, which is my absolute max at the moment, surprised I can even do it, calves go numb halfway through. I'm not really winded at the end, just hobbling along.

Afterwards I do 100 "uses" of a cardioglide machine I have access to. It's similar to rowing while also working thighs a bit. 100 continuous is about my maximum for one session. It's set to a high resistance.

After that it's 100 continuous jumping jacks. Followed by a cool-down walker for ~10 minutes.

Later at night, before bed, I repete the jogging/cardioglide/jumpingjacks/walk.

Sooo... for one day it sums up to:
30 minutes continuous walking
~15-20 minutes continuous jogging X2
100 uses of cardioglide X2
100 jumping jacks X2
~10 minute cool down walker X2

Is this enough to lose weight effectively? I'm not too worried about building muscle at the moment, I'm already an ox.

Plan9Senior

So you are basically doing over 1 hr of cardio per day? That is way too much and also burning your muscle up as well as your fat . Keep in mind that if you are losing 1-2 lbs a week then you are at an optimal pace. Anything more then that and you are doing something wrong and losing valuable muscle. This is why it is so important to not let yourself get fat because it can take a long long time to get trim again. Unfortunatly you cannot build muscle while you are losing fat. In order to lose weight, you need to be taking in less calories then you use per day, and to build muscle you need to take in more calories per day. You can only retain the muscle you have by a proper diet (tons of protein) and a better cardio routine then what you are doing now. Go here and read about HIIT (high intensity interval training): http://www.musclemedia.com/training/hiit.asp

*Edit: Remember, losing weight is 70% nutrition and 30% exercise. Concentrate on your eating habits asap, then the exercise combined with that will have you shedding off that lard in no time

Cardinal Syn

Yea start focusing on your diet now. You should shed the pounds with all that cardio.

Why dont you lift some weights during the week as well? I would also suggest that to. Buy some inexspensive dumbbells and a body ball and go to town with that. SO far it has worked wonders for me.

I lack on the cardio. My main downfall right now ATM. Wish i had your enegry to do it :>. I just hate walking and joggin. Need to pick me up a stationary bike.

almostaugust

Dude, keep up that walking man. Lots of people just think that the harder the better, but a longish walk does wonders for your whole body.

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Looften

Ok, I've done a bit more research and I believe I'm more prepared to organize my workouts.

From what I understand, HIIT works far far better when on an empty stomach and a good deal before you eat again. Other websites have recommended doing HIIT first thing in the morning.
I can handle that, but there is also a lot of emphasis on eating 5-6 small meals a day. How can I keep the meals relatively spread out while leaving a fair amount of time after HIIT for it to be effective.

I suppose I could follow this schedule:
-Wake up at 6:30am
-Do HIIT on an empty stomach, 4-15 minutes according to Plan9's site.
Have lunch (first meal of the day) at 10:00 (tuna fish? salad? tuna fish on salad?)
-small meal around 2?
-small meal around 5?
-small meal around 8-9?

It'd be a lot easier to fit in 5-6 meals if I could eat in the morning, but it sounds like that would hinder the HIIT.

So my main question is on the diet, how many meals do I actually need, and what kind of stuff should I eat? I know I should stick to a lot of protein, but I'm not sure what are good, easy to make, quick meals to use. Would fruit for a meal be a good idea? Are some fruits better/worse? Should I just keep tuna out of a can?

Also, would it be good to do the HIIT every morning, then 30 minutes of walking during the day, and in the afternoon 2-5pm do 15-20minutes jogging, 100 jumpingjacks, cardioglide, and cooldown walking that I mentioned earlier? Would it be too much to do that every day? (not doing that "session" twice a day as I proposed earlier)

Plan9Senior

Glad to see you are getting motivated!!
Have a bowl of oatmeal about 30 minutes before your HIIT session. HIIT fitst thing in the morning on an empty stomach can burn some muscle. After your first meal, try and eat every 3 hours and limit your carbs to the morning and afternoons. If you drinking protein shakes, make sure to drink it after your HIIT session.

Being that you are 5' 11" 237 lbs, your BRM is around 2860 which means that you are going to want to eat about 2300 calories a day to lose weight at an optimal pace. As you lose weight, you are going to obviously need to lower your caloric intake as well. To find out your BMR as you shed the pounds, you can use this site here: http://walking.about.com/library/walk/blcalcalc.htm

As far as your daily eating habits are concerned, I will show you an example of what I eat daily at 6' 170 11% bodyfat (trying to get to 9%).

Wake up:
6:30 Eat 1/3 cup oatmeal and protein shake
7:15 Do Hiit session or weights (depending on the day of the week)
8:00 ish, or whever I finish my workout I have a protein shake
11:00 Turkey Sandwich on whole wheat (no mayo, mustard only) and handfull of almonds OR can of tuna with handfull of almonds
2:00 1/2 cup cottage cheese
5:00 chicken breast, vegatables, and a side of something different each time, ex. sweet potato, salad, etc
7:00 protein bar

**Note: Drink a ton of water each day. Aim towards 1 gallon per day.

Write down the foods you eat and what you are questionable about eating and I can help you sort out the crap from the good stuff if you need help Once again, good luck to you!

jokeR`afk

Your half cup of cottage cheese, does it have to be cottage cheese specifically, can it be interchanged with something else to maintain the same benefit?

Plan9Senior

Of course. I change up my diet all the time to have variety. I just happen to really like cottage cheese :P, and it is pretty high in protein.

A great subsititute would be to eat about 5 egg whites

TheClarkster

As far as cardio exercise goes, how much biking would one need to do to keep in decent shape? And would it need to be strenuous type biking, ie up all the hills I could find, or could it just be laps around the park? I'm 5'10" and about 145. I'm perfectly fit to keep myself content, but I've got some extra skin or fat or whatever around my belly. Just trying to shed that. Wish I could take up a healthier diet, but college manages to get in the way...

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axolotls

always eat breakfast. it's been proven that people that don't eat something in the morning are usually more fatter than those that don't. more stuff from the morning paper, but it made absolute sense. Too bad i can't remember the exact details since I was thumbing my way to the comics

TheClarkster

What exactly can be called breakfast? A bowl of oatmeal/cereal? A banana? A glass of chocolate milk? Hopefully something I can grab on my way out. Any suggestions as to breakfasts that can be taken and eaten on the freeway drive in to school.

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Plan9Senior

Oatmeal (done in bold because it is so quick and easy to make, and should be a staple to anybody's diet because of its nutritional value) Hard boiled egg whites, cream of wheat, protein shake, etc... its all common sense. Chocolate milk? hehe, common.. I shouldn't have to tell you that chocolate milk is not the best thing for you

irseg

Join a gym. That way you can lift in addition to your cardio routine, plus if you're like me, paying for it provides extra motivation to go regularly.

Rather than chocolate milk, get some chocolate flavored whey protein and mix that with milk for breakfast. Plan9 has excellent advice. It's pretty much identical to what a friend of mine (5'8", 155lbs, can bench 250+) tells me (5'8", 150lbs, was a complete wimp) to do. So far it's working incredibly well.

Ripsaw

Looften:

Excellent attitude. I'm glad you're moving forward with this. However, I would caution you on taking care of your leg joints.
Your weight at this point, no matter how sturdy your structure, comes down on very few points on your body. From your toes, heel, ankle, knee, hip, all the way up your spine, to your head. I would recommend losing some more weight before taking up jogging seriously. The cushions between your joints are very difficult if not impossible to build up once they have deteriorated.

Train now so that you can train later.

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numist_net

youve easily got exercise down, all there is is diet, thats already been said, but I'd like to emphasize:

you do not need to exercise more than that, it is plenty and it would be great if everyone could put that kind of effort into their physical condition.